DRUG HOUSE PADLOCKED BY STRATEGY THAT WORKS

Judge John M. Durkin declared the Youngstown house to be a public
nuisance on Aug. 27.

YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's strategy of filing lawsuits to have drug
houses declared public nuisances, boarded up and padlocked is
effective because it bars drug dealers from returning to them -- and
hits the property owners in the pocketbook, city officials said.

Their comments came in the wake of a magistrate's order that keeps a
reputed South Side drug house closed for a year after final
disposition of the lawsuit, or until the property owner resolves the matter.

The order to keep 542 W. Glenaven Ave. closed was issued Tuesday by
Magistrate Dominic J. DeLaurentis Jr. of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

At the city's request, Judge John M. Durkin initially declared the
house a public nuisance and issued the temporary restraining order to
close the house on Aug. 27. The house was then vacated and
temporarily boarded up and padlocked pending Tuesday's hearing.

City Prosecutor Jay Macejko filed the civil nuisance action against
the house's owner, Yvonne J. Young, and her tenant, Dewaylon R.
Bruton, and unidentified other tenants.

Neither Young nor Bruton, nor lawyers representing them, showed up
for Tuesday's hearing.

Macejko said in court papers the city received numerous complaints
about the house between February 2007 and August 2008. A police
informant made 13 crack cocaine purchases at that house in the last
17 months, Macejko reported.

Police executed search warrants there on April 13 and Nov. 20, 2007,
finding marijuana, prescription pills, a crack pipe and four scales,
Macejko added.

At Tuesday's hearing, Randy Miller, a city vice squad officer, and
Larry McLaughlin, a county sheriff's deputy, testified in detail
concerning the history of undercover crack cocaine purchases and drug
raids at 542 W. Glenaven.

"It's a known nuisance drug house," Miller said.

"It's just a violent business that lands in one of our residential
neighborhoods," Macejko said of the drug trade. "Boarding up this
house would stop this problem," he told the magistrate.

"There was a large group of violent offenders that were frequenting
that house," Lt. David McKnight, city police vice squad commander,
said after court. When police raided it and boarded it up Aug. 27,
the house had no running water, but it contained drug paraphernalia,
large screen TVs and several $500 video games, he said.

Continuing illegal drug sales there "will cause immediate and
irreparable harm to the surrounding community," the magistrate's order said.

The advantage of nuisance lawsuits is that drug sellers are barred
from returning to the boarded up drug houses, even if they've made
bond or been freed under the county jail's emergency release policy
after their arrests, Macejko said.

Police watch the boarded up drug houses, which bear "no trespassing"
placards, and they can arrest anyone found there for trespassing; and
trespassers can also be punished for contempt of court, noted Police
Chief Jimmy Hughes.

Property owners who permit drug sales have a lot to lose, he noted.
"We want to send a strong message" they can forfeit the houses to the
city if they continue to permit drug sales in them, Hughes said.

While a house is boarded up, it becomes a dormant investment that
generates no rental income for the owner, McKnight noted. "It's a
financial blow to the owner," he said, noting the owner then incurs
startup costs associated with any re-occupancy when or if the plywood
is removed.

The house on Glenaven was a strong candidate for board-up under a
public nuisance action because of the "very large amounts" of crack
cocaine -- up to a quarter of an ounce at a time -- being sold there
and because of its proximity to the Youngstown Playhouse, which is
only a block away, Macejko said.

The drug sales at the house occurred round-the-clock with a lull
during the morning hours, Macejko said. "It was becoming a very
active and notorious site, and we wanted to make sure we took it out," he said.

"Public nuisance suits are based on repeated, chronic felony drug
activity," Macejko explained.

The city used the same type of public nuisance action against a
reputed drug house at 37 N. Hine St. on the city's East Side, and, in
February, Magistrate Eugene Fehr ordered that house closed for a year
or until further notice.

In March 2007, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum ordered a reputed South Side
crack house at 417 Kenmore Ave. closed and padlocked for six months.